Working Man's Burbon

[HO455]

My first impression was that someone had painted them, but the inside of the glove box is gray and it looks as if the spdi was glued on top of the gray. And thanks again for the kudos.

[Bigdav160]

I thought the '68 GMC Suburbans were gray

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Bigdav160

I thought the '68 GMC Suburbans were gray

Ignore the GMC steering wheel I installed it. I will look around for some 68 GMC's photos. Thanks.

[HO455]

The trip to the store for a rebuild kit was a bust, as the kits they had were nothing like the parts inside my pump. This led to a couple of hours of interweb searching for a rebuild kit. At this point it appears that I have the earlier style pump used in the 60-66 trucks. There seems to be no parts for these pumps. Most of the information I found has folks converting the pump to a remote style pump of some sort, or a universal replacement pump. I picked up a universal style pump, then bent up a bracket to mount it to in place of the old pump. Today's lesson is READ the directions, BEFORE making your bracket. After making the bracket I read that the pump should be mounted vertically. I had planned on the pump being horizontal. So instead of making a new bracket I comprised and put the pump at a 45* angle. I made a couple jumpers to hook up to the factory pump connector. Works like the stock pump with the exception that you have to keep the switch pushed in to keep the pump running. It has way more pressure than the original one so the water goes on the roof not on the window. I spent another two hours looking for leaks on the air bags and made some headway. The left rear now leaks about five pounds every twenty minutes now instead of a pound a minute. And the right front is about half that rate. The other two are holding good.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work. I need to get a washer pump put on my 72 some time too.

[HO455]

Our current batch of weather has reminded me how important it is to have a working windshield washer. No real progress today, just teardown in preparation of repairing more misdeads of the PO. Going through the leak detection process I went around bouncing the four corners of the WMB and noticed the left front acted like it had a bad shock. Looking closely at the shock I realized the upper shock mount is broken out of the frame. So I tore the shocks out and the remains of the upper mount. This is what happens when someone doesn't do all of the engineering on a modification. The PO put the air bags on and removed the bump stops and called it good enough. The shocks became the bump stops everytime they bottomed out internally and over time broke the mounts out of both sides of the frame. I will be putting in a raised shock of mount of some kind and new shocks. The right side was so bad it caused the shock to drop out and the lower body of the shock is damaged. I noticed the dent in the shock when I was looking at the truck initially but didn't put two and two together. Photos 1&2 show how loose the upper mount was. With the shock on the truck would move up and down about an 1 1/2" before the shock moved. Then the bolt damage and the shock damage.

[HO455]

Upgraded the cooling system. Went to the wrecking yard and looked around for a coolant recovery tank. I settled on one out of a first generation 4.3 S10. Fabbed up some brackets preped and painted them. Came home and looked a the forum and found out that 80's Monte Carlos have a tank that is much easier to install. Three bolts through the fender well and the outlet is in the correct corner. Oh well! Here is how mine came out. The last picture shows the Monte Carlo version that slowcrawl used and a link to his posting.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=728143

[3drburb]

Looking very good.
It's almost cruising time.

[HO455]

Yes it was certainly nice here this afternoon. Good thing I was underneath the WMB drilling holes for the new shock mounts. Otherwise I may have been tempted to take off on a quick spin which would have been a bad idea as there is still gravel everywhere since the snow storm. I've got two big cracks in the windshield of my S10 from flying gravel in the last two weeks. No reason to take the new paint out in that even though I really wanted to drive it to the NWDRA swap meet Sunday. Since I didn't finish the shock mounts I'll be driving the Stink10 this year. Thanks for the complement.

[Advanced Design]

Burb is looking great! I sure wouldn't want to take it out on road debris.

Too bad about the shocks and mounts.

[HO455]

Thanks AD. The shock mounts had to be done, just should of been years ago. Went to the Portland auto show today and this was all I found to take a picture of.

[HO455]

Got the front shock problem finished. Ordered raised shock mounts and got the KBY's local. Had some difficulties on the driver side finding the right location due to all holes in the frame. Every time I got it lined up one of holes would be over part of an existing hole. Tried to reuse one of the old ones but it would not line up right. Had to compromise and ended up with it hanging off the frame on the lower part. If the engine has to come out I will remove the mount so i can weld up the holes and make it right. Also had to clearance the inner fender liners which they don't tell you when you buy them. The drivers side also interferes with the speedometer cable. Looking back I think I should have built some like the Hotchkis ones and avoided the speedo cable and notching the fender liners. This job wouldn't of been possible without a 90* drill and jobber length drill bits.
During this project I noticed the airbags aren't attached to the lower control arm. This seems wrong. (If I am mistaken about this please let me know). There is a thin fender washer and a 3/8" bolt on the bottom of the bag but the washer is too small to hold the bag in place. It looks like I will have to come up with some kind of retaining plate.

[3drburb]

Do you have lower cups or a lower bag plate on your front bags? From what I can see in the picture it looks like they are just sitting in there. If that's the case you need the lower cups.
How about a better picture?

[HO455]

Of course not! The bag is just sitting in the stock spring pocket with a two inch SS washer in a two inch hole. The washer is too thin to do anything. Here is the best photo I have now. I won't be able to get any better photos for a couple of days. Man I should have of pulled the bags and put springs back in to start with. It never seems to end.
Thanks for the help.

[3drburb]

Don't get frustrated it's coming along pretty darn good.
Just check all your bags for rubbing along with the plates and or cups also make sure everything is bolted down with grade 8 bolts that is short enough to not touch your bags in full motion and install them with the nuts to the bottom, just in case it ever loosen up the bolts won't just fall out.
Look like your upper bag plate is missing bolts.
The cups and plates can be easily purchased and installed.
There is a simple how to install bags thread, look it up. Its a nice one.
Trust me, at this point you don't want springs.

[HO455]

Hi 3dr Burb, thanks for taking the time to look at this. The upper plates on the bags are welded in place. Which is frustrating as I am unable to replace the line going to the bags.

[3drburb]

You are welcome.
Just trying to help.
The garage storage end is near. These projects are never done.
You will be on the road any day now.

[HO455]

Well here are more pictures of the air bag debacle. There is no doubt they have been rubbing the spring pockets. First photos. I will fab up some cups for them and see how it goes. I can only guess that the upper plates were cut and recessed and the lower cups were omitted in order to get the truck to sit lower. I don't know if that makes sense or not.
While looking into this problem I see the PO had trouble with the brake line to the passenger side where the hard line connects to the flex line. The fitting is completely rounded and the tubing is twisted and the flex line fitting isn't lined up in the tab so the u-clip can't be installed so the flex line is rubbing the control arm. Time to make some new lines. I had hoped to wait until the motor came out to do the brake lines. Thanks for the encouraging words 3drburb.

[HO455]

I went to the Steel Yard and got a 12 x 12 piece of 1/4" plate and 56" of 4" schedule 40 pipe for $34 (It's 's $15 a cut and I know I will use the rest of the pipe somewhere)and hour and half in the shop later I had two cups for the bags. They dropped right in without issue! Yay! I do like that it's at ride height with 90 psi instead of 140 psi. Then I installed the 1-1/4" sway bar I got for $40. I used aftermarket bushings and mounted them right to the frame. I had to clearance the outer bumper brackets at the frame and the zerk fitting on the driver side bushing clamp hit the frame when the bags were aired out. (The passenger side had at least 1/2" of clearance???) I removed the offending material away from the upper spring mount. However when I put the steering through a full range of motion with the bags up and down I found that the end of the Pitman arm hits the sway bar. I thought that I may need to lower the sway bar, but having looked around the forum I'm not sure if lowering the bar mounts will make enough of a difference or if the problem is caused by how the power steering pump is mounted. If it's like the rest of the things the PO did, I will probably have to move the steering pump. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

[3drburb]

You are getting there.
Did you bolt the bag to the lower cup? If not, you will need to. One grade 8 short bolt each.

Is the picture with the Burb on the ground?

Btw before you touch the steering you should get a pair of sway bar brackets for lowered trucks that should give you the clearance as it will drop the bar off the frame.

What did the bar come out of?

I hope this helps.

[3drburb]

Was the full motion, bags up and down with the tires on the ground. These suspension do funny things in the air, so maybe take it off the jacks and stands, with the tires on the ground then see if you get the clearance.

[HO455]

Full motion was checked with the wheels off and on the ground. The photo shows the interference. Apparently some people have been able to run the bar without a spacer. It wouldn't take much to clear the bar maybe a couple of degrees difference in how the steering box was mounted or how far up the Pitman arm went up on the steering box sector shaft.
I don't know exactly what the bar came out of. The wrecking yard had pulled it and it was just tagged with the interchange number. The good thing at present is that it looks as if all is sanitary with the steering box installation. Unless there is something I am missing.
I dropped the bar and mocked it up in a lower position and started fabbing some some different mounts. But I am back to work tomorrow so no progress will be made until next Tuesday.
Thanks for the help.

[Average Joe]

Looking good!

Thanks again for taking the time to post the pics and detail of your build. You are definitly taking the time to do it right! Nice work.

[HO455]

Thanks averageJoe. I'm trying to do it right. It's going to be a daily driver, so it needs to be reliable. I should of had more pictures (I had planned to) but I get to working and forget to stop and take pictures. Too many years of working for a living. I pulled the rear wheels and replaced the old 295-50-15 michelin maypops with a pair of 275-60-15 TA's. I certainly do like the look of the taller tire.

[Dieselwrencher]

Looking real nice. Those front air bags will serve you a lot better not rubbing everything.